On May 22, head on over to the Ten Mile Creek Brewery at 48 N. Last Chance Gulch in Helena from 5-8 p.m. to get your Smith River pint glass and a beer for $10. Now’s the time to step up to help save the Smith and it’s not bad when you can get a beer to boot.
Let’s say – just hypothetically – that there was a mining company out there run by people who could guarantee that a small mine wouldn’t cause any environmental problems. This is obviously hypothetical because no such company or mine exists. If it did, it would be good, but there would be no guarantee that company would own the mine throughout its lifetime. In the world of capitalism, mining and fluctuating metal prices, mines often swap hands and nothing guarantees that the new owner will have the same priorities.
“Water sustains life. Water sustains agriculture.”
Those are the words of Clint McRae, Rosebud area rancher who raises cattle near Colstrip. In this video, Clint voices his concern about the leaking coal ash ponds near his ranch that threaten Rosebud Creek and other water that his cattle depend on. The sulfates in the water are more than 8 times higher than what is safe for cattle.
Amazing how disasters change people’s ambivalence toward mines.
According to this High Country News story, “Silverton’s Gold King reckoning,” the Colorado mining town of Silverton has regretted its original choice to oppose federal mine clean-up after the ancient mine had already created a pollution problem.
Mining companies such as Tintina Resources love to claim that mines will be safe, thanks to “modern mining.” But if mining has changed so much, shouldn’t Americans, and especially Montanans get a modern mining law?
In addition to the common mining-company maneuver of declaring bankruptcy before having to fork out money for reclamation, another set of common ploys appears to be tax dodging and bribing local communities. The story of Cameco Corp., a uranium-mining company in Saskatchewan, is a good illustration of those.